City safety & data profile

GalvestonTX

Galveston, TX is a 50K-resident city in Galveston County with a median household income of $55,631.

Galveston County, Texas. Federal health, economic, and safety indicators for Galveston, drawn from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey, CDC PLACES, and CMS Hospital Compare. Galveston has a population larger than 79% of the 4,640 U.S. cities Areazine tracks, a median home value of $326,000, and 2 hospitals serving the surrounding area.

Data updated 2026-09-16
50K
Population (place)
Top 21%
By size
$55,631
Median income (place)
$326,000
Median home (place)
21.4%
Poverty rate (place)
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The read on Galveston

Galveston posts a median household income higher than 16% of U.S. cities Areazine tracks, where 2 hospitals serve the Galveston area.

Bottom 17%
by median income, US cities
2
hospitals in & near Galveston

Composite score · Galveston, TX

30/100

4 published dimensions · ACS/FBI 2024

A transparent index Areazine derives from Census ACS medians (income, poverty, bachelor's share) and FBI UCR violent-crime rates when published, not an official Census Bureau or FBI rating. Higher means a stronger standing on those published figures, not a livability rating, not a recommendation to move to or avoid any place. Missing inputs drop out and redistribute weight. How it is calculated.

Bachelor's+ share C
36.0%

Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS 5-Year Estimates.

Violent crime F
344 /100k

FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents. State-level rate (per-city UCR reporting is incomplete/voluntary): every city in the state shares this value; lower is stronger on this axis.

Household income F
$55,631

Median household income vs cities tracked on Areazine; ACS 5-Year Estimates.

Poverty rate F
21.4%

Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis. ACS 5-Year Estimates.

Compare against every tracked city: Healthiest Cities in America (health outcomes only) · Community Wellbeing Cities (this page's blended composite).

Where Galveston income ranks nationally

Median household income vs. every place Areazine profiles (place-level ACS)

$55,631 Bottom 16% higher than 16% of 3,889 places Areazine profiles

Galveston $0 $260,000 every profiled place, bucketed by value

Each bar is a $20,000-wide band; taller bars hold more places Areazine profiles. The dashed line + filled bar mark this entry. Hover or tap any bar for its full count, share, and where it sits relative to this entry.

Source U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey (place-level) · 2024 ACS 5-year

Population ranking: TX

Ranked by headcount across the 244 TX places Areazine tracks with both population and income data. Tooltip carries the income rank.

residents

What this shows By headcount, Houston ranks #1 here -- income honors go to Southlake.

Source U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey (place-level) As of 2024 ACS 5-year

Income ranking: TX

Median household income among the same 244-city pool. Tooltip shows the population rank.

median

What this shows Income honors go to Southlake here -- by headcount, that title belongs to Houston.

Source U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey (place-level) As of 2024 ACS 5-year

The quick read

Reading Galveston, TX beyond the headline numbers

Galveston sits inside Galveston County, Texas, at roughly 29.30°N, -94.80°W. Population 50,180, $55,631 median household income. Median home value $326,000, median rent $1,298. Poverty rate 21.4%, read against that income figure since two cities on the same median can differ underneath it.

2 hospitals in/around Galveston, 3/5 avg rating, 1 with an ER. Climate: 71.4°F annual average.

Among the CDC measures on this page, lack of health insurance departs furthest from its peer median: 17.5% in Galveston, the highest-prevalence quarter of the 3,759 cities reporting that measure.

21.4% of Galveston, TX residents live below the poverty line, placing it in the hardest-hit quarter of reporting cities. Read every median on this page against that: half the households are above it, and a large minority are far below.

The median home in Galveston costs around 5.9 times what a median household earns in a year -- the most expensive quarter of reporting cities, and far enough ahead of local pay that ownership is largely closed to median earners.

Unemployment in Galveston sits at 5.7%, above the midpoint of reporting cities.

Median rent in Galveston, TX runs $1,298/month, below the midpoint for reporting cities.

36% of Galveston adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, above the midpoint of reporting cities.

Remote work covers 12.2% of Galveston workers, under the midpoint for reporting cities.

Sources: U.S. Census ACS, CDC PLACES, CMS Hospital Compare, plus live alerts for Galveston from FEMA, NOAA, FDA, and CPSC. Economic comparison bars use the unweighted average across tracked Census places with a reported value, not a household-weighted national median.

A Decade of Change 2013–2024

County-level trend (Galveston County): Galveston's own historical series isn't separately published by the Census Bureau, so these year-over-year figures track the surrounding county, not the city alone.

20132024
Population
359K+21%
Median Income
$86,105+39%
Median Home Value
$314,600+112%
Poverty Rate
11.7%-12%
Unemployment
5.7%-34%

Economics

Galveston's poverty rate of 21.4% runs 73% above the tracked-city average, the most notable of the economic figures Areazine tracks here. Median household income runs 38% below average too, at $55,631.

Economics indicators for Galveston, TX
IndicatorValue
Median Rent
$1,298/mo
Poverty Rate
21.4% +73% vs avg
Unemployment 5.7%
Bachelor's Degree+ 36%
Work From Home 12.2%
Public Transit 0.3%

By the Numbers

White 54.7%
African American 15.4%
Asian 2.8%

Health at a Glance 15 measures

Health Indicators

High Blood Pressure
39.8%
Short Sleep Duration
38.4%
Obesity
36.4%
Physical Inactivity
29.5%
Lack of Health Insurance
17.5%
Frequent Mental Distress
17.3%
Binge Drinking
16.3%
Diabetes
15.1%
Frequent Physical Distress
14.8%
Current Smoking
14.1%

Preventive Care

Dental Visit 53.6%
Annual Checkup 75.7%

Other Measures

Current Asthma
10.2%
Coronary Heart Disease
7.3%
Stroke
4.1%

Hospital Access 2 total

CMS Overall Hospital Quality Star Rating (1-5): a composite score across dozens of reported measures, not a single outcome guarantee for any patient. It isn't adjusted for patient case mix and isn't directly comparable across hospital types, a critical-access facility and a large teaching hospital aren't rated on the same measure set.

Rating Distribution
★★★★★
0
★★★★
0
★★★
1
★★
0
★
0
Average Rating
3/5
Total Hospitals
2
With ER
1
UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS MEDICAL BRANCH GALVESTON
GALVESTON · Acute Care Hospitals · ER
★★★☆☆

Climate

NOAA 1991-2020 Normals
Avg Temperature
71°F
Annual Rainfall
N/A
Hot Months (>80°F)
6
Cold Months (<40°F)
0
63°
48°
Jan
-
65°
51°
Feb
-
70°
58°
Mar
-
76°
63°
Apr
-
83°
72°
May
-
88°
77°
Jun
-
90°
80°
Jul
-
91°
79°
Aug
-
89°
76°
Sep
-
81°
68°
Oct
-
72°
58°
Nov
-
65°
50°
Dec
-

Cost of Living

BEA 2024
98.6 Regional Price Parity

1.4% below national average

US avg
98.6

Metro area: Houston-The Woodlands-Sugar Land, TX (MSA)

Source: BEA Regional Price Parities via FRED. RPP of 100 = national average.

Flood Claims on Record

FEMA NFIP, county-level
10,476
Claims filed
$860.2M
Total paid out
X
Most common flood zone

10,476 flood insurance claims have been filed in Galveston County since 2016, with $860.2M paid out by the NFIP.

Hurricane Harvey alone generated 8,712 of those claims, the county's largest named flood event in this record.

Source: FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) claims, via OpenFEMA. County-level data: individual claims are not attributed to a specific city or address by FEMA.

What alerts and safety updates affect Galveston?

No area-tagged alerts are on record for Galveston right now. New federal and counterpart-agency notices still land in the site feed as agencies publish them.

City alert dispatch desk

Sheet TX-GALVESTON · Galveston

Galveston: 17 tagged alerts; lead category NWS weather alert.

  • VOL-ACTIVE 17 on record
  • WX-LED 82% weather
  • DESK-MIX NOAA · EPA
  • PHOTO-FINISH ≈ El Paso

Tagged alert mix: Galveston

Published notices carrying this city slug or location tag

Value

What this shows 17 tagged notices on record for Galveston.

Source Areazine publication corpus As of Live tagged feed

Nearest tagged-volume peer: El Paso, TX (16 tagged · Δ1)

Counts reflect published articles tagged to Galveston; untagged NOAA county warnings may still appear in the site feed. Browse Texas state hubs · Methodology

Cities with a similar tagged alert volume 4

Nearest published-notice counts on Areazine (17 tagged here), a feed-density peer set, not an ACS demographic match.

El Paso, TX 16 alerts Phoenix, AZ 15 alerts California, MD 15 alerts Victoria, TX 13 alerts

Read with this city profile

Understanding Weather Alerts

Watch vs warning vs advisory, how NOAA labels map to action
All safety guides →

What People Ask 9

What is the population of Galveston, TX? ▼
Galveston, TX has a population of 50,180 people, located in Galveston County, Texas.
What is the median household income in Galveston? ▼
The median household income in Galveston, TX is $55,631 per year, per the U.S. Census ACS. The poverty rate is 21.4%.
What is the median home value in Galveston? ▼
The median home value in Galveston, TX is $326,000. Median rent is $1,298/month.
What are the top health concerns in Galveston? ▼
The top health indicators in Galveston include High Blood Pressure (39.8%), Short Sleep Duration (38.4%), Obesity (36.4%). Data from CDC PLACES.
How many hospitals are in Galveston? ▼
Galveston has 2 hospitals with an average rating of 3/5 stars. 1 have emergency departments.
What is the median age in Galveston? ▼
The median age in Galveston, TX is 41.5 years. 36% of residents have a bachelor's degree or higher.
What is the climate like in Galveston? ▼
Galveston has an average annual temperature of 71.4°F.
What is the cost of living in Galveston? ▼
The regional price parity for Galveston is 98.629, meaning prices are 1.4% below the national average.
What is the flood claim history for Galveston? ▼
Galveston County, Texas has recorded 10,476 NFIP flood insurance claims since 2016, totaling $860.2M in payouts. This is county-level data: FEMA does not attribute individual claims to a specific city.

Nationwide cities with similar poverty or income 8

Two ACS-derived peer sets for Galveston, both outside Texas so the neighborhoods are not the geographic nearby list below.

Similar poverty rate

Nearest place-level ACS poverty rates outside TX (21.4% here).

Philadelphia, PA 21.4% Wilmington, DE 21.4% Normal, IL 21.4% La Crosse, WI 21.4%

Similar median income

Nearest place-level ACS median household incomes outside TX ($55,631 here).

Greenfield, MA $55,614 Laramie, WY $55,613 Marquette, MI $55,613 Cape Girardeau, MO $55,658

Compare Galveston with another city

Pick a second U.S. city to open a side-by-side profile on population, income, health, and hospitals, the same federal datasets as this page.

Quick picks:

Nearby Places 8

Texas City, TX 48K La Marque, TX 16K Dickinson, TX 20K Santa Fe, TX 13K Seabrook, TX 14K League City, TX 98K Webster, TX 11K La Porte, TX 35K
All cities in Texas → Compare Galveston vs Texas City → All comparisons → Browse all cities

Turning this into a research checklist

Use this as a starting research checklist, not a verdict on whether to live here.

  • Check live recalls, weather and hazard alerts scoped to the Galveston area before relying on national headlines. Check your area
  • Income and poverty rate tell different stories, two places sharing a median can still diverge sharply on poverty.
  • Compare Galveston against Texas peers on any ranking lens. Explore Texas

Place-level figures for population and economics (income, home value, poverty, education) come from U.S. Census ACS; health data is CDC PLACES; hospital counts cover facilities in and around the city. Any county-level trend is labeled as such.

Data Sources

All data on this page comes from official U.S. government sources. Population and economic data from the Census Bureau American Community Survey (2024 5-year estimates, place geography). Health data from the CDC PLACES program (2023). Hospital ratings from CMS Hospital Compare (2024). Climate data from NOAA. Education data from NCES. Cost of living from Bureau of Economic Analysis. Crime statistics, where referenced on Areazine, originate from the FBI Crime Data Explorer. Housing market figures referenced on Areazine come from HUD Fair Market Rents. Census economics and population are at place geography; some health and hospital indicators are reported at the county level (Galveston County) where that is the smallest published unit.

Every figure on Areazine is published directly from official U.S. government sources, no number is typed in by an editor. City demographic and health figures are compiled directly from U.S. Census (place-level ACS), CDC, and CMS releases, updated quarterly within 30 days of upstream release. County-level trends are labeled when shown. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. Data current as of 2026-09-16.